Aksentiev (Season 1)

Aksentiev (2022) is a Russian mystery-detective series you can watch online on iFILM. At a roadside bus stop two cops — Katya and her partner Kukharenko — pick up an odd man with a canvas sack over his head. His name is Roma Aksentiev.

Six months in a hospital have left him with a blank slate: no memory of his home, his family, or who he used to be. What the thirty-year-old does have is a gift. Touch a stranger's hand and he sees their past, or their future. It's a frightening talent, and a priceless one for the police, because a killer nicknamed Vodyanoi is working the small provincial town, drowning his victims in the local ponds and lakes. Katya takes Aksentiev on, and every case they crack inches him closer to his own erased life. The cast features Yevgeny Serzin, Marina Vorozhishcheva and Filipp Yankovsky.

Director Andrey Libenson is less interested in the procedure than in a man piecing himself together through other people's fates. The gift here is a weight, not a superpower. A solid pick if you like detective stories steeped in the supernatural and slow provincial gloom. Stream the series Aksentiev (2022) online on iFILM.